Japan's overseas aid scheme marks 70 years but questions arising on its future

Country's economy shrinking and scheme has now also taken a geopolitical edge

- Walter Sim

TOKYO - Vietnam's first subway system began running on Dec 22 in Ho Chi Minh City, which joins other Asian cities such as Bangkok, Beijing, Jakarta and New Delhi in having metro lines that were built with Japan's help. Manila is set to be next, in 2028. It is undeniable that Japan has contributed immensely to the building blocks of Asia's connectivity through the decades, via its Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme that marked its 70th-year milestone in 2024.

Through ODA, which is led by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Japan has disbursed grants or low-interest loans to developing countries, alongside technical cooperation in the form of human resources development and the transfer of technological know-how.

ODA has long been a benevolent foreign policy tool to uplift developing nations, which have come to be referred to collectively as the Global South.

But it has now taken a geopolitical edge amid evolving global dynamics, with the idea of ODA often framed as a competition against China and its flagship Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

"The over-emphasis on geopolitics in foreign aid may be counterproductive for all countries concerned, and we should focus on results on the ground," Dr Takeshi Sato-Daimon, an expert in aid diplomacy and international relations at Waseda University, told The Straits Times.

Yet, given Japan's relative decline in economic strength and competitiveness, he added: "Japan should be graduating from ODA as we know it today, and reconsider the question of 'why aid' from scratch."

The country, now the world's fourth-largest economy, is slipping down the global gross domestic product (GDP) standings, falling behind China in 2010 and then Germany in 2024.